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Northrop Grumman Names Newest Spacecraft after 'Hidden Figures' Icon

Northrop Grumman announced this week it would be naming it's newest cargo ship after 'Hidden Figures' icon, Katherine Johnson.

By Silek Sat 06 Feb, 2021 11:30 AM - Last Updated: Sat 06 Feb, 2021 4:13 PM
Northrop Grumman announced this week it would be naming it's newest cargo ship after 'Hidden Figures' icon, Katherine Johnson.

In a press release on February 1st, the company stated, "In celebration of Black History Month, Northrop Grumman announced the name of our NG-15 Cygnus spacecraft in honorJohnson1
Northrop Grumman's NG-15 Cygnus
cargo ship, named the "S.S. Katherine
Johnson"
of Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician who overcame barriers of race and gender. It is the company's tradition to name each Cygnus spacecraft after an individual who has played a pivotal role in human spaceflight. Her work at NASA quite literally launched Americans into space and her legacy continues to inspire young black women every day. Northrop Grumman is proud to celebrate the life of Katherine Johnson and her endlessly perseverant spirit."

As well as delivering just over 3700 kg of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station, The SS Katherine Johnson is part of a student outreach program by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority. Just after two months from docking at the station, the craft will depart and deploy several cubesats, or miniature satellites as part of this program. After the successful completion of it's mission, it will return to Earth's atmosphere to self destruct.

Johnson was among the many African American women who acted as 'human computers' for the National Advisory CommitteeJohnson2
The Katherine G. Johnson Computational
Research Facility at NASA's Langley Research
Center
for Aeronautics, the agency that would become NASA. Johnson, and those like her, laid the mathematical foundations for the calculations used to send humans to the moon, and bring them back again.

After the organization's transition to NASA, Johnson started with the Space Task Group at the Langley Research Center calculating and reconfirming trajectories for human spaceflights. Johnson was the first woman in the flight research division to be given credit as an author of a report.

In 2015, NASA had the honor of naming it's one of it's core research centers, The Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at NASA's Langley Research Center. The dedication ceremony took place on the 55th anniversary of Alan Shepard's spaceflight, the first for an American.

Speaking in front of her at the dedication ceremony on May 5th, Clayton Turner, Langley's Deputy Director said, "Millions of people around the world watched Shepard's flight, but what they didn't know at the time was that the calculations that got him into space and safely home were done by today's guest of honor, Katherine Johnson."

Johnson would go on to retire from NASA and eventually, along with her colleagues, sell the rights to their story, and watch it become the novelization and motion picture it would come to be. She passed away at the age of 101 on February 24, 2020.

She will always be remembered as an inspiration for generations of scientists and astronauts and as a clear example gentility, grace, and sheer brilliance.


Let us know what you think in the comments below.


WRITTEN AND EDITED BY Silek


2 Comments
Sat 06 Feb, 2021 2:05 PM
That's a really interesting read there Silek and it's great to see such a pioneering womans legacy continue.
Sat 06 Feb, 2021 5:23 PM
A great and very interesting article, Silek! Thank you very much! Thumbs up